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Voices

Microsoft Buys Skype

Ben Horowitz, Co-founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz in Media on May 10, 2011 at 5:34 am PT

Shortly after we started Andreessen Horowitz, we, along with our partners at Silverlake Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, bought Skype from eBay for slightly more than $2B. The investment generated a tremendous amount of controversy for us.

BoomTown Will Have What Marc Andreessen Is Having–Investors' Splashy Win in Microsoft-Skype Hookup

Kara Swisher in News on May 10, 2011 at 12:28 am PT

When a group of powerful investors, including Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, waded into the mess at Skype less than two years ago with a $1.9 billion cash investment for a big chunk of the company, it was–how can BoomTown put this delicately–a hot mess. Now–with Microsoft poised to pay over $8 billion for the Internet telephony and voice communications company–it is a lucrative one.

Confirmed: Microsoft Will Announce Acquisition of Skype Tomorrow Morning

Kara Swisher in News on May 9, 2011 at 8:14 pm PT

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier tonight that Microsoft–in what would be its most aggressive acquisition in the digital space–was zeroing in on buying Skype for $8.5 billion all in. Sources told BoomTown tonight that the deal for the online telephony and video communications giant is actually done and will be announced early tomorrow morning.

Skype Updates Its Pre-IPO Numbers, Plans to Sell Display Ads

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on March 7, 2011 at 9:50 am PT

Skype has boosted its subscriber base by more than 100 million users since last summer. That’s among the disclosures in an updated filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

[UPDATED] Big Tech IPO of the Day: Skype Tries to Dial Up $100 Million

Peter Kafka in Media on August 9, 2010 at 6:45 am PT

After Demand, the deluge. Here comes the next big brand-name public offering: Skype, which used to be owned by eBay but was sold off to an investment consortium last fall, is going back on the public market again. Unlike Demand, Skype is profitable. Like Demand, Skype would like you to look at numbers that portray it as very, very profitable.

All Is Forgiven: "It's a Clean Slate," Says Andreessen About Lawsuit-Mad Skype Co-Founders

Kara Swisher in News on November 6, 2009 at 11:28 am PT

Silicon Valley legend and now VC Marc Andreessen was making the interview rounds after the settlement between the litigation-addled co-founders of Skype and all the various people they were suing was announced this morning. In an interview with BoomTown, when asked about the aggressive legal tactics of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis that resulted in them finally seizing a stake in the Internet telephony giant by suing him and many other Silicon Valley players, Andreessen said: “We did not take it personally. It’s a clean sheet of paper.” Well, it is actually a torn, stained and very worn out piece of paper, but bygones!

Volpi and Index Smack Back at Skype Founders With Motion to Dismiss (Plus Filings!)

Kara Swisher in News on October 15, 2009 at 3:49 pm PT

The legal high jinks in the contentious battle over the fate of Skype got worse this afternoon, as former Joost CEO Michelangelo Volpi and Index Ventures filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the founders of Skype–Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, via Joost and Joltid–against them. It’s yet another chess move among a group of well-known tech players, who used to work together closely and are now at odds.

Dueling Skype Sides Hire Big Communications Guns

Kara Swisher in News on October 15, 2009 at 10:56 am PT

Perhaps the sides in the ever-escalating war over the Skype deal will work out their differences and settle–which is what should and probably will eventually happen after everyone realizes how stupid all this noisy legal wrangling over the Internet telephony giant is. But that day is decidedly not today, given a pair of recent big-gun PR hires by parties involved.

Exclusive: Skype Founders Keep on Punching–File Injunction Against Volpi and Index

Kara Swisher in News on October 14, 2009 at 7:04 am PT

Joost and Joltid filed a motion for preliminary injunction against former Joost CEO Michelangelo Volpi and Index Ventures, where Volpi now works as a partner, asking that he not use knowledge or confidential information he got at the video start-up in current dealings with Skype. The move is yet another legal attack from the founders of Skype, who were on the losing side of the $2 billion deal to buy the Internet telephony giant from eBay.

Parsing the Legal Tantrums of Zennström and Friis

Kara Swisher in News on September 18, 2009 at 4:30 pm PT

Is it just me or is it completely ironic that a pair of European entrepreneurs kept out of the United States due to tantrum lawsuits from the music industry are stamping their own legal feet like two ill-tempered toddlers of late? That would be Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who today filed yet another lawsuit in their seemingly never-ending quest to win in court what they couldn’t in business dealmaking.